URoL:EN: Towards a unified theory of regulatory functions and networks across biological and social systems

复杂的组织结构从非常小的（如细胞）到非常大的（如政府系统），维持这些结构需要大量的精力和资源。例如，考虑一下美国法律的系统中专门处理诉讼和解决冲突的部分。法律的体系的结构包括法律本身、律师、法官和所有其他参与提起诉讼并确保诉讼得到解决的人。因此，美国公司仅在诉讼方面就花费了大量资金。 在美国大学，行政支出与教学支出相当，并被认为是美国大学学费上涨的关键因素。 这类成本的持续增长是一个重大挑战，但人们对它们的理解并不十分透彻。 当这些成本被研究时，它们通常被视为隐藏的或非预期的费用，这些费用是发现它们的系统所特有的。该基金支持的研究为研究从单个细胞到整个社会的不同类型系统的调节机制开发了一个统一的理论框架。该研究通过提出使公司、大学和政府等机构的组织更有效率的方法来改善社会。调节功能和机制是所有生物、社会和机械系统中必不可少的、基本的和普遍存在的特征。细菌有调节基因，公司有管理者，汽车发动机有发动机控制单元。事实上，对于所有旨在在多方面和竞争环境中生存的复杂自适应系统来说，挑战是最佳地管理内部功能和相互作用。 因此，复杂系统中调节机制的存在是一种普遍的生命规则，而网络结构就是在生命规则下出现的。该基金开发了一个统一的科学监管职能及其相关的新兴结构，以回答这样的问题：是什么原因导致监管成本的增加？我们能否根据一个有机体或组织的规模、功能和复杂性来预测其所需的监管成本？是否有必要增加系统的管理或监管功能，以确保系统的持续运作，或者这是一个不必要的负担？这项研究开发了科学的测量方法，以确定适当的或最佳的规模和网络结构的官僚制度，以执行其任务。该研究分为两个步骤：1）收集和组织跨越生物和社会系统的数据集; 2）使用这些数据集为各种系统的监管结构开发理论。该理论将从一个数学框架开始，将成本描述为系统的规模和复杂性的函数，并将该理论与组织及其结构的功能多样性的新结果和模型相结合。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Complex organizational structures range from the very small (such as cells) to the very large (such as a system of government), and maintaining these structures requires a lot of energy and resources. Consider, for example, the part of the US legal system that is devoted to handling lawsuits and resolving conflicts. The structure of the legal system includes the law itself, the attorneys, judges, and all the other people involved in bringing a lawsuit forward and ensuring that it is resolved. As a result, US companies spend a lot of funds on litigation alone. In US colleges, administrative spending is comparable with instructional spending and has been cited as a key factor in the increasing tuition of US universities. The continuing growth of these kinds of costs is a major challenge, but they aren't understood very well. When these costs are studied, they are often viewed as hidden or unintended expenses that are unique to the systems in which they are found. The research supported by this grant develops a unified theoretical framework for studying regulatory mechanisms across different kinds of systems, from single cells to entire societies. The research improves society by suggesting ways to make the organization of institutions, such as companies, universities and governments, more efficient.Regulatory functions and mechanisms are a necessary, essential, and ubiquitous feature across all biological, social, and mechanical systems. Bacteria have regulatory genes, companies have managers, and car engines have engine control units. Indeed, the challenge for all complex adaptive systems that aim to survive in multi-faceted and competitive environments is to optimally manage internal functions and interactions. The presence of regulatory mechanisms in complex systems is therefore a universal rule of life, and network structures emerge under the rule of life. This grant develops a unified science of regulatory functions and their associated emergent structures to answer questions such as: What causes an increase in regulatory costs? Can we predict the amount of regulatory costs an organism or organization needs, based on its size, function, and complexity? Is it necessary to grow the administrative or regulatory functions of a system to ensure the continued functioning of the system, or is it an unnecessary burden? This research develops scientific measurements to determine the appropriate or optimal size and network structure of bureaucracy for a system to perform its tasks. The research takes place in two steps: 1) gathering and organizing datasets that span biological and social systems; and 2) using these datasets to develop a theory for regulatory structures across a wide range of systems. The theory will start from a mathematical framework that describes cost as a function of the size and complexity of a system and integrate this theory with new results and models of the functional diversity of organizations and their structures.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.